The 2012 IndyCar Series thread

[Wizzie]

Sato to Rahal/Letterman

[Cynon]

Sato to Rahal/Letterman

Not a very well-kept secret, to be honest...

[Dj_bereta]

According to some brazilian sources, Vitor Meira retired from Indycar. Now, he will racing in brazilian stockcar.

[nome66]

as with all brazilian journalism, Autosport or it didn't happen

[Malinth]

as with all brazilian journalism, Autosport or it didn't happen

Then again, they did say Senna had the Williams seat.

[nome66]

bare in mind this is still related to the Indycar series... kinda.

now, these are clearly the display chassis of the 2012 Dallarra from last year repainted. I think they should take the winning football team's car and do a victory lap around IMS. they also have the other 30 teams' painted onto indycars as well.

[jpm]

Right, lots of spaces left, who will take them? James Jakes was pictured at Sebring with Wilson, so he looks likely to return to Coyne. Tracy should go to Shank - can't wait to see PT's farewell tour.

Teams with rides available are Andretti Autosport - James Davison and Gus Yacaman tested for them in December, Bobby Rahal - heres hoping Bertrand Baguette returns!, Conquest Racing - who knows..., and Sam Schmidt.

And then there's the elephant in the room - KV and Rubens Barrichello. He's up against Viso's PDVSA money and Esteban Guerrieri with the Argentinian tourism board behind him. Personally I hope Esteban and Rubens get the KV rides - Viso is a waste of space (although he is most likely).

[Cynon]

Jakes got the other Coyne seat. No surprise there.

Tracy will go to Shank - can't wait to see PT's farewell tour.

Fixed. PT even admitted it himself.

I doubt Andretti will run the 4th car at this point unless someone with tons of cash steps up, but I'd prefer Yacaman take the drive over Davison. I hope Pippa Mann gets the Rahal car (and from what I can tell she's the leading contender along with Jay Howard), because she's honestly one of the more interesting people to come into IndyCar in some time... ATTENTION ENERGY DRINK COMPANIES! If you want someone who probably uses your product, Pippa Mann is your safest bet!! Conquest, no clue what they're doing. I doubt they'll be on the grid at this rate, no news at all from their end...

Viso and Rubens will fill out the KV Racing seats. Viso has already been guaranteed a seat due to Citgo/PDVSA money, and Guerrieri isn't impressive really...

Haven't heard anything about the second Dreyer and Reinbold or the second Sam Schmidt seat for quite some time. I can imagine Ho-Pin Tung, Wade Cunningham, or Breadman landing one of those two rides, though.

[JeremyMcClean]

Milwaukee Mile confirmed for 2012

Thank god this isn't turning into the Street Racing League of America

[Wizzie]

Milwaukee Mile confirmed for 2012

Thank god this isn't turning into the Street Racing League of America

Milwaukee should never have been dropped to start off with.

[nome66]

well they had a good reason. they always came up with the money late.
happened in 2011, 2009, 2008, etc. then they give puppy dog eyes and pow! back on the schedule.
speaking of the doghouse (see what i did there) Baltimore is in some serious Jeopardy here.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/ne ... of-no.html

i really hope they get their act together. i wanna hear the new Lotus-Judds in person!

[Dj_bereta]

as with all brazilian journalism, Autosport or it didn't happen

http://globoesporte.globo.com/motor/sto ... plona.html
and
http://stockcar.globo.com/index.php/201 ... cer-progp/
(brazilian portuguese)

Now, its official, vitor meira retires from indy and goes to brazilian stockcar. News from official stockcar site, in other words, a trust source.

Translation of Vitor quotes (my english is bad, but I hope you understand):

I just have to thank all teams which I drove in Indy and whole fantastic experience I have acquired over the past ten years, but everything has a beginning and an end. And now is a new beginning, because I saw that it was the right time to go back to Brazil and Stock Car, the best category of the country, especially in a top team like ProGP. I was very well received by Duda and the entire team, and I'm looking forward to speed up my car - said the pilot of 34 years.

I Almost drove in Stock before, but appeared a chance to go to Indy and I had such great years there. Now is the time to truly know and dedicate myself 100% for Stock Car - emphasized the pilot, who will make his debut with the car of ProGP on 7 and 8 March, during the pre-season test in Curitiba, Parana.

autosport got a reject of journalism in this time.

[nome66]

so he retires to where all good open wheel drivers retire. DTM! but this time, with Pugs and Chevys.

[Cynon]

It's good to see that Meira knows when to hang up the IndyCar helmet and to put another one on, there's a few other drivers (Davey Hamilton, Tomas Scheckter, I'm looking at you) that don't.

[nome66]

Davey Hamilton just sounds like an old-timey name lol.
i was just at the Baltimore Convention Center(the IndyCar Paddock during the Baltimore Grand Prix) today and took a good look around at the road surface where the track was and it's still has the same pavement it had back on Labor Day. of course without the chicane and turn 5/6/7 pylons. My dad drove us there today and he exclaimed "Holy Crap this road is soooooo smooth!! we gotta get tickets for september this year".

[Cynon]

Looks like you'll be able to go:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaki ... 4555.story

[nome66]

whew! i'm just glad they put in someone who knows what they're doing this time around.
Baltimore Racing Development's prime goal was to get the race to come to baltimore, and had not planned ahead of it actually happening, which is why they were in such monumental amounts of debt.

[Mister Fungus]

Eh hopefully we don't get a repeat of the truck driving in the wrong direction before the rolling start incident.

[nome66]

oh yea i heard that safety driver got fired

[Cynon]

Eh hopefully we don't get a repeat of the truck driving in the wrong direction before the rolling start incident.

Pretty sure he got fired immediately for such rampant stupidity.

Anyway, Special Ed got Chevy power. Meaning he has the the best engine out there (as far as I can tell).

Also, the Luca Filippi rumor that was going around 4 months ago is apparently true. The only part that makes my jaw drop and go LOL WUT is that Michel Bathplugging Jourdain is apparently coming back.

... seriously?! Jourdain was a decent driver, too bad that he was decent a decade ago and hasn't driven an IndyCar or a Champ Car since the end of 2004! Granted, he's still younger than Rubens Barrichello and Paul Tracy...

...but both Ruby an Tracy have proved that they were winning drivers to the racing world many times over (especially in Tracy's case)!

[F1000X]

Is Rubens confirmed yet? I'm really hoping he grabs a seat for this season. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people, whether that's positive or negative we shall see.

[nome66]

i think he's pretty much racing for KV in St. Petersberg, all he needs is someone nice enough to pain their name on the side of his car.

[Wizzie]

Iowa becomes target for latest IndyCar gimmick

Plus they're keeping double file restarts for all tracks except for the three tracks that can theoretically handle it better than anywhere else. Great thinking there

[Cynon]

The Iowa heat races are going to be FUN.

Double file restarts don't work out that well on ovals because in case you've never seen them in NASCAR, half the time it gives the third place car second, fifth place third, etc. Sometimes it gives the 4th place car second... ..so yeah... either someone above Barfield told him he couldn't get rid of them entirely or something.

On road courses it's just idiotic.

[ADx_Wales]

Should have reacted to the Milwaukee news on here sooner:

Good news that its on the Indy Calendar.

BAD NEWS(?), Its on Le Mans Weekend...

[Mister Fungus]

On road courses it's just idiotically good.

FTFY

[nome66]

Should have reacted to the Milwaukee news on here sooner:

Good news that its on the Indy Calendar.

BAD NEWS(?), Its on Le Mans Weekend...

attendance won't be an issue. no one in Wisconsin cares.

[ADx_Wales]

Attendance WONT be an issue Nome, Indycar drivers that want to do Le Mans will be.

[nome66]

bordais is a probability
not sure if any other drivers are interested though.

[ADx_Wales]

Simon Pagenaud, but his former employers Pug have obviously pulled out of all things Diesel-LMP, There is also the Highcroft Deltawing to contend with, another of Simon's former teams.

[nome66]

oh yeah i forgot that ridiculous car was competing.

[Wizzie]

Rejectful IndyCar team is rejectful

[Cynon]

A rant on Sarah Fisher's predicament courtesy of Robin Miller. If you honestly believe Luca Filippi deserves the Honda engine and not Sarah Fisher's team, you're probably inhuman, or preferred Toro Rosso to Minardi.

[CoopsII]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97522

Go Rubens go!

I really think Rubens could be popular in Indycar and I look forward to seeing his daft celebrations following his first Indycar win.

[nome66]

who lost his Williams F1 seat to Bruno Senna

IT HAPPENED

[CoopsII]

Rubens' twitter rant* that he's "Sad to see that Trulli won't be on the 2012 grid...money is dominating everything" has lessened his appeal to me by 3% Come on, Ruby you've been in F1 during its most money dominated period ever so its a little late and naive to start waving that flag.

*In the UK if a celeb tweets anything even slightly negative it automatically becomes a 'twitter rant'.

[Cynon]

Ruby will have what is apparently the best engine of them all if he takes the KV drive. His whining ability will certainly give Dario and SeaBass a run for their money.

[Wizzie]

And the right thing has finally been done.

To sum this entire engine situation up, Go Home Danny Bahar!

[Cynon]

And the right thing has finally been done.

To sum this entire engine situation up, Go die in a fire Lotus!

Fixed.

[nome66]

so does anyone have any word or information on what the deal in China is? i haven't heard, read, or seen anything since almost 2 months ago.
no track layouts released yet, no ticketing information, nothing.